The present disclosure is related generally to the field of dental treatment. More particularly, the present disclosure is related to methods, instructions on a computing device readable medium, and devices formed with shaped material components.
Dental treatments may involve, for instance, restorative and/or orthodontic procedures. Restorative procedures may be designed to implant a dental prosthesis (e.g., a crown, bridge, inlay, onlay, veneer, etc.) intraorally in a patient.
Dental treatments also may include dental appliances in the form of trays that fit around the teeth of a jaw of a patient. These trays may hold medications to improve the health of the teeth or surrounding tissues or may be used to reduce a patient's sleep apnea of snoring.
Orthodontic procedures may include repositioning misaligned teeth and changing bite configurations for improved cosmetic appearance and/or dental function. Orthodontic repositioning can be accomplished, for example, by applying controlled forces to one or more teeth over a period of time.
As an example, orthodontic repositioning may be provided through a dental process that uses positioning appliances for realigning teeth. Such appliances may utilize a thin shell of material having resilient properties, referred to as an “aligner,” that generally conforms to a patient's teeth but is slightly out of alignment with a current tooth configuration.
Placement of such an appliance over the teeth may provide controlled forces in specific locations to gradually move the teeth into a new configuration. Repetition of this process with successive appliances in progressive configurations can move the teeth through a series of intermediate arrangements to a final desired arrangement.
Such systems and other dental appliances can utilize materials that are light weight and/or transparent. With respect to aligners, these devices provide a set of appliances that can be used serially such that, as the teeth move, a new appliance can be implemented to further move the teeth without having to take a new impression of the patient's teeth at every increment of tooth movement in order to make the successive appliance.
In various instances, teeth of a patient's upper jaw and teeth of the patient's lower jaw may contact in an incorrect or suboptimal manner (e.g., crowding, crossbite, deep bite). A dental appliance can be provided to correct such an issue.
In some embodiments, these types of dental appliances may have the need to reinforce some areas or the whole appliance or that a specialized feature may be needed in a certain area of the dental appliance. For example, it may be desired that an area be reinforced to provide more force, force in one or more specific directions, or to provide force for an extended period of time. However, as these devices are typically formed from one sheet of material having a uniform thickness, reinforcement may not be possible.